はじめまして.

I suppose I should just introduce myself in English? I’m Laura. I’ve been studying Japanese off and on for the past 5 years or so. I have to fit studying in around work and family obligations, and with most approaches, that inevitably led to me having to drop what I had been doing, and then end up having to retrace my steps. The result is that I have a very patchy understanding of grammar and a rather bizarre vocabulary set.

I started studying Japanese because I like to watch Japanese programs and dramas. Wanting to know more about the actors and productions, I wanted to be able to read blogs and other web sites. Of course, I tried using machine translation, which almost always leads to hilarious results. I swear that someone with a sick sense of humor has weighted Google Translate so that Japanese comes out sounding like soft porn no matter what the topic. Anyway, I really want to be able to read the articles I find, read the books and magazines that have fallen into my hands, and, most of all, understand all the unsubtitled shows I have. If I can hold a conversation with someone, that would be nice, too.

Enough about me.

よろしく